–December’s jobs numbers represent yet another good-not-great labor market report, a description which could characterize just about every piece of incoming employment data issued since midsummer. In some sense, this long-lasting mediocre situation echoes broader trends in the US economy, where we’re faced with a number of risks from marginal components of economic growth (government spending, energy, exports), and a lack of “inspiration” when it comes to the core sources of output. As the page turns to 2013, there’s little hint of change for the next twelve months. Long live the zero interest rate policy! –Guy LeBas, Janney Montgomery Scott

–Employment in the pro-cyclical construction (up 30,000) and manufacturing (up 25,000) sectors were higher on the month, providing some indication of improving growth momentum. Employment in the retail sector, however, declined by 11,000, undoing some of the brisk jobs gains in the previous months. Employment growth in the acyclical education and health services, added a whopping 65,000 – accounting for over one-third of all the job gains reported in December. –Millan L. B. Mulraine, TD Securities

–Total government employment fell by 13,000 as local and federal job losses outweighed growth at the state level. Finally, temporary help jobs declined by 1,000. Temporary help jobs have been a tremendous source of job growth since 2010. But since these jobs tend to pay less than full time jobs and since many view this development as a response to growing uncertainty and taxation at the federal level, the response by pundits has been muted. As it stands now, total nonfarm employment stands at about 134,000. That still leaves us about 4 million jobs short of the peak set right at the start of 2008. We all know the job losses in this recession were worse than anything we’ve seen in the post war era but with a relatively slow economic recovery, the length of time it is taking to recover that previous high dwarfs anything we’ve seen over the same time frame. –Dan Greenhaus, BTIG LLC

– The couriers and messengers sector fell -11,000. Recall this sector surged dramatically in the last few Decembers as BLS seasonal factors had trouble adjusting to rising Internet/shopping delivery trend. It looks like the seasonal factors have caught on (and if anything are now overcompensating). –Jay Feldman, Credit Suisse

–Employment (particularly in the private sector) continued to expand at a moderate rate in the final three months of 2012 despite the uncertainties over the fiscal cliff. Apart from the moderate pickup in private employment in the last three months versus the last year, there were other positives within the report including the strengthening in wage growth, the increase in the workweek (combined they point to a strong increase in wage incomes in December, while manufacturing hours suggest a very solid gain in manufactured output in the month), and increases in employment in the key sectors of construction and manufacturing. However, employment growth has not been strong enough to make further inroads into lowering the unemployment rate. –RDQ Economics

–Not especially strong nor weak. While a 150,000-170,000 per month trend in payrolls is far from booming, it is strong enough over time to keep the unemployment rate moving down given slowing in the secular trend in labor force growth. Unemployment was flat in December, but it is down 0.4 points in the last six months.–James F. O’Sullivan, MF Global

–We are still a fair way from the 6.5% Fed target, it is also important to note that as the labour market situation continues to improve there will be an encouraged worker effect which should see the unemployment rate decline at a less aggressive pace than we have seen over the last year. –David Semmens, Standard Chartered Bank

–Beyond the headline employment numbers, gains in average hourly earnings (+0.3% m/m) and the workweek (up 0.1 to 34.5) are encouraging signs that the labor market more broadly is firmly in recovery mode. Aggregate hours rose an annualized 1.5% q/q in Q4 (up from 1.0% in Q3) and the payroll proxy of income was up 3.5%, up from 2.8%. –Peter Newland, Barclays Capital

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